I just had to get a new one from the consulate in Madrid, charged me 135 Euros the thieving bastards!
Just one question though, and forgive me for being so stupid, but what information exactly does that 'biometric chip' contain? My understanding of biometrics is that they describe attributes of your biological make up such as fingerprints, DNA, Iris scans etc. Given that I just filled in a form with the usual stuff, they have none of those details so how can it be a biometric passport?
It doesn't contain any biometrics. It just contains the things that can be "human read".
I think that the theory is that it can be reprogrammed during the life of the passport to add some biometrics when they have decide which ones work.
tim